The present invention relates generally to inkjet printheads, and more particularly to reference datums for positioning of an inkjet printhead assembly.
A conventional inkjet printing system includes a printhead and an ink supply which supplies liquid ink to the printhead. The printhead ejects ink drops through a plurality of orifices or nozzles and toward a print medium, such as a sheet of paper, so as to print onto the print medium. Typically, the orifices are arranged in one or more arrays such that properly sequenced ejection of ink from the orifices causes characters or other images to be printed upon the print medium as the printhead and the print medium are moved relative to each other. In one arrangement, the printhead, also referred to as a printhead die, is mounted on a carrier so as to create an inkjet printhead assembly. Typically, a mounting assembly and a media transport assembly establish relative positioning and movement of the inkjet printhead assembly and the print medium, respectively.
Positioning of the inkjet printhead assembly, however, requires proper alignment between the carrier of the inkjet printhead assembly and the mounting assembly. Unfortunately, misalignment between the carrier and the mounting assembly can adversely affect performance of the inkjet printing system. Misalignment between the carrier and the mounting assembly, for example, can result in ink drop trajectory errors, printing swath gaps, and/or pen-to-paper spacing problems which degrade print quality. Thus, in order to avoid misalignment between the carrier and the mounting assembly, relative positioning between the inkjet printhead assembly and the mounting assembly should be controlled.
Accordingly, a need exists for controlling relative positioning of an inkjet printhead assembly in a mounting assembly. In particular, a need exists for establishing reference points for a carrier of an inkjet printhead assembly.
One aspect of the present invention provides a carrier adapted to support at least one printhead die. The carrier includes a substrate having at least one surface and at least one datum attached to the at least one surface of the substrate, wherein the substrate includes a first material and the at least one datum is formed from a blank including a second material. As such, the at least one datum is adapted to position the carrier in at least one dimension.